Are you a science educator or interested in science education? Sign up for the NASA Education “Science WOW!” mailing list. Receive an email with NASA’s latest science education offerings delivered “Weekly on Wednesdays.”

Science starts with a question, and so does “Science WOW!” Each week’s message kicks off with a science question and a link to where you can find the answer. “Science WOW!” also highlights an awesome science education tool each week. These featured resources will include NASA apps, interactive games, 3-D printing templates and more!

Plus, “Science WOW!” delivers — right to your inbox — the latest science education opportunities offered by NASA. It’s a simple way to keep up with the latest professional development webinars, student contests, workshops, lectures and other activities.

The first “Science WOW!” message is scheduled to be sent on Aug. 10, 2016.

The NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University is presenting a series of free webinars open to all educators. Join NASA education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources that bring NASA into your classroom. Registration is required to participate. To register, simply click on the link provided beneath the webinar description.

Climate Change Webinar 3: Human Impact on the CoastAudience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades K-12Event Date: July 28, 2016, at 4 p.m. EDT
In Part 3 of this webinar series, participants will continue exploring climate change. NASA research scientist Dr. Dorothy Poteet will discuss human impacts on coastal ecosystems in the New York region. Participants will also learn about NASA STEM resources related to climate change that may be implemented in the classroom. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/181749

Real NASA Data for Real Learning: Using Earth Observatory Data SetsAudience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 5-9Event Date: Aug. 1, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Participants will get an overview of resources from the Earth Observatory and NASA Earth Observations websites. The resources may be used to discuss climate system interactions using authentic data. Activities presented in this webinar address the Next Generation Science Standards ESS2 and ESS3. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/190527

NASA Resources for Home SchoolAudience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 5-8Event Date: Aug. 2, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Participants in this webinar will get an overview of resources and join a discussion of modifications to accommodate small groups or individual students. Materials covered will focus on science, mathematics and engineering. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/190530

NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and the National Institute of Aerospace announce the 2017 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing Idea Challenge. The BIG Idea Challenge invites teams and their faculty advisors to work together to design and analyze potential modular concepts and systems that provide the ability to construct large solar electric propulsion, or SEP, tugs in space that can transfer payloads for low Earth orbit to a lunar distant retrograde orbit. Concepts can employ new approaches for packaging modules in one or more launch vehicles that minimize launch loads; modular (distributed) solar arrays and ion engines; and robust robotic assembly (joining) of the modules that form the SEP tug.

Interested teams of three to five undergraduate and/or graduate students will submit proposals (eight to10 pages) describing their BIG Idea. Based on a review of the proposals, four teams will be selected to submit full technical papers and present their concepts to a panel of NASA judges at the 2017 BIG Idea Forum at NASA’s Langley Research Center on Feb. 15 and 16, 2017, in Hampton, Virginia.

The final four qualifying teams will receive a $6,000 stipend to facilitate participation in the BIG Idea Forum. The winning team will receive offers to participate in paid internships with the Game Changing Development team at Langley Research Center where they can work toward further developing their concept under the mentorship of NASA experts.

Interested teams are encouraged to submit a notice of intent by Sept 30, 2016, and teams must submit proposals by Nov. 30, 2016.

For full competition details, including design constraints and submission guidelines, please visit http://BigIdea.nianet.org.

Download the New Flier for the One Stop Shopping Initiative for NASA Internship, Fellowship and Scholarship Opportunities

Are you either an undergraduate or graduate student looking for paid internships at NASA centers and installations? Applications for spring 2017 internships are being collected now. Download the new flier for the One Stop Shopping Initiative for NASA Internship, Fellowship and Scholarship Opportunities.

The OSSI Launchpad website is a NASA-wide system for the recruitment, application, selection and career development of undergraduate and graduate students. One application connects students to multiple opportunities across the agency.

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has sent back mind-blowing images that not only changed our understanding of our universe, but also changed where we see glimpses of our universe in everyday life.

Hubble is more than a science spacecraft; it’s a cultural phenomenon! Take a moment to think about where you’ve seen the Hubble Space Telescope or Hubble images in your daily life. Maybe you own a textbook with a picture of the telescope on the cover, or you walk by a mural inspired by Hubble images every day on your way to work. Perhaps you’ve even created art based on Hubble images. NASA wants to see the Hubble impact in your life! Share your photos with NASA on Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

Images may be submitted on the following social media platforms:
— Flickr: Submit your photos to the Spot Hubble Flickr Group.— Instagram: Use the Instagram app to upload your photo, and in the description include #SpotHubble and #NASAGoddard.
— Twitter: Share your image on Twitter and include #SpotHubble in the tweet.— Facebook: Share your image on Facebook and include #SpotHubble in the post.

Your #SpotHubble image may be shared on NASA Hubble social media accounts!

The History Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Department of History at the University of Alabama Huntsville invite academics, graduate students and independent scholars to submit proposals for papers to be presented at a two-day symposium, March 16-17, 2017. The symposium will take place at the University of Alabama Huntsville and will address the role/relationship of NASA to the “Long” Civil Rights Movement, particularly in, but not limited to, the Deep South (Huntsville, Florida, Houston, Mississippi and New Orleans).

The conceptual framework for the symposium is provided by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall’s 2005 essay in the Journal of American History, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” which called upon historians to produce new “modes of writing and speaking that emphasize individual agency … while also dramatizing the hidden history of politics and institutions.” Along these lines, the conference welcomes papers addressing the Civil Rights experience across NASA that not only explore the experience of African Americans, but also of women, immigrants and other politically/legally marginalized groups. The intention is to publish a subset of the papers as an anthology.

Those interested in presenting a paper at the symposium should send an abstract of no more than 400 words and a short biography or curriculum vita, including affiliation, to Brian Odom at brian.c.odom@nasa.gov or Dr. Stephen Waring at warings@uah.edu by July 31, 2016.

NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society once again will offer filmmakers around the world a chance to share their works inspired by — and using — actual NASA imagery through “CineSpace,” a short-film competition.

Films featuring NASA-captured imagery and video collected throughout the agency’s 50-year history will be judged on creativity, innovation and attention to detail. Works submitted to “CineSpace” will compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to be shown to audiences both on and off Earth. In addition to being screened at the “CineSpace” awards ceremony during the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, winners and finalists may be screened at other film festivals across the country, as well as on NASA TV and even on the International Space Station.

“CineSpace” is open to all filmmakers, both professional and aspiring. The competition will accept submissions of all genres, including narrative, documentary, comedy, drama, animation, experimental and others, of up to 10 minutes running time. Entries must use at least 10 percent publically available NASA imagery.

The submission period opens June 1, 2016, and closes July 31, 2016. Finalists and winners will be announced at a “CineSpace” event during the Houston Cinema Arts Festival in November. Entries will be competing for $26,000 in prizes with cash awards going to the top three submissions as well as the two films that best demonstrate the themes “Benefits of Space to Humanity” and “Future Space Exploration.”

NASA is embarking on a journey to Mars! Are your students ready to join in the adventure? Spark excitement in your classroom with the Mars Survival Kit.

The Mars Survival Kit is a collection of educational activities for students in grades K-12. Each educational activity includes a brief description, as well as information about how the activities and lessons align to the Next Generation Science Standards.

To celebrate the launch of the first-ever expandable habitat to the International Space Station (Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM) and the launch of the first-ever commercial 3-D printer in space (Made In Space’s Advanced Manufacturing Facility), NASA and the American Society for Mechanical Engineers Foundation are challenging students to think outside the box with 3-D printing — literally. If you are a K-12 student in the United States, your challenge is to design a useful object that assembles, telescopes, hinges, accordions, grows, or expands to become larger than the printing bounds of the Advanced Manufacturing Facility 3-D printer in space (14cm length by 10cm width by 10cm height). The function of your assembled or expanded item can be anything you think would be useful for an astronaut living on the International Space Station.

The ‘Out of the Box’ Challenge is the fourth in a series of challenges where students in grades K-12 will create and submit a digital 3-D model of an object that they think astronauts might need in space. Future Engineers is a multiyear education initiative that consists of 3-D space challenges and curriculum videos on the site that parents and educators can use to get kids designing today.

The NASA Swarmathon is now accepting applications for the 2017 NASA Swarmathon Physical Competition. Selected teams will receive $5,000 in robot kits, a $1,000 stipend for their faculty member, and the chance to compete against teams from across the nation. The top scoring team will receive a $5,000 prize.

The Swarmathon will challenge students to develop search algorithms for robotic swarms, and these algorithms will be tested in a competition at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in April 2017.

Swarmathon participation will (1) improve students’ skills in robotics and computer science and (2) further advance technologies related to future NASA space exploration missions. Faculty members at Minority Serving Universities and Minority Serving Community Colleges are eligible to apply. The deadline for applications is Aug. 1, 2016.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is hosting a series of one-day educator professional development workshops to connect educators with NASA research, technology and real-world STEM application. Workshops will include segments with NASA subject matter experts in science, engineering and technology. Participants will collaborate on ways to use the information in classroom settings and will learn how to access NASA’s work to spur cause-and-effect creative thinking among learners.

All workshops begin at 9 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. EDT. Participants must be U.S. citizens.

ClimateWorkshop Date: Aug. 3, 2016
Learn about Earth’s major systems: geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. NASA scientists are studying Earth’s systems dynamics and will share their research on how these systems interact to affect Earth’s surface material and processes. Participants will then develop activities related to the scientists’ research on how the ocean variability can influence ecosystems, landforms, climate and weather.

Planetary Science: NASA in MotionWorkshop Date: Aug. 4, 2016
Learn about “Forces and Interactions” and take part in experience-based learning for educators about NASA’s work in the context of the gravitational forces of Earth. NASA scientists will be speaking to participants, who will then collaborate on ways to teach students to argue from evidence and use “cause and effect” thinking to identify and explain change related to gravitational forces.

Each workshop is limited to 50 participants. Early registration is encouraged.

If you have additional questions about the workshops, contact Kim West at (202) 861-1260, x5566.

Free Tours of Facilities at NASA’s Glenn Research Center

NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is offering tours that take visitors behind the scenes and inside certain research facilities. Glenn scientists and engineers serve as guides. Tours and open house events will be held each month through October 2016. Tours are free for groups and individuals, but reservations are required to guarantee admission. Visitor parking is also free.

On the days of the tours, a bus departs from Glenn’s main gate every hour, beginning at 10 a.m. The last tour departs at 1 p.m. Each tour lasts about 45 minutes, and a stop at Glenn’s Gift Shop follows the tour.

Glenn’s 2016 Tour Schedule

Aug. 6, 2016 — See Things a Different Way: Check out Glenn’s Graphics and Visualization, or GVIS, and the Reconfigurable User-interface and Virtual Reality Exploration, or GRUVE, Laboratories. The GVIS lab uses advanced computer input and output devices paired with a variety of natural user interface devices and 3-D displays. The GRUVE lab analyzes data obtained either by computer simulation or from research test facilities.

Sept. 10, 2016 — Vibration Testing: Join us on a tour of Glenn’s Structural Dynamics Laboratory, where things get shaken to verify their survivability. Several experiments that currently are operating on the International Space Station were tested in this lab.

Oct. 1, 2016 — Prepare for Impact: Come explore Glenn’s Ballistic Impact Facility. See the laboratory that helped to identify the cause of the space shuttle Columbia accident and to return NASA’s shuttle fleet to flight.

2016 Summer Professional Development Workshops at Wallops Educator Resource Center

The Educator Resource Center at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is hosting a series of free summer professional development workshops for educators. Learn about these upcoming workshops:

NASA’s BEST (3-8 Educators)Workshop Date: Aug. 8-9, 2016
Learn about the NASA’s Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology program during this two-day workshop. NASA BEST brings the principles of engineering alive to younger audiences, and the content is great for supplementing curricula.

Each workshop is limited to 20 participants. Early registration is encouraged.

National Science Foundation’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers

The National Science Foundation is accepting proposals for the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, or ITEST, program. This program supports the development, implementation and selective spread of innovative strategies for engaging students in experiences that do the following:

— Increase student awareness of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and ICT (information and communications technology) careers
— Motivate students to pursue the education necessary to participate in those careers
— And/or provide students with technology-rich experiences that develop their knowledge of related content and skills (including critical thinking skills) needed for entering the STEM workforce.

ITEST projects must involve students but may also include teachers. The ITEST program is especially focused on broadening participation of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields and related education and workforce domains. ITEST strongly encourages projects that actively engage business and industry partners. The resulting relationships better ensure that the students’ experiences foster the knowledge and skill sets needed for emerging STEM-related occupations.

The Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series, named after the founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and presented by JPL’s Office of Communication and Education, shares the excitement of the space program’s missions, instruments and other technologies.

Lectures take place twice per month, on consecutive Thursdays and Fridays. The Thursday lectures take place in JPL’s Theodore von Kármán Auditorium, and Friday lectures take place at Pasadena City College’s Vosloh Forum. Both start at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT). Admission and parking are free for all lectures. No reservations are required, but seating is limited. The Thursday evening lectures are streamed live for viewing online. Archives of past lectures are also available online.

Next Lecture in the Series:

The Rosetta Mission: Comet C-G Up Close
Event Date: Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, 2016, at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT)http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.php?year=2016&month=8
After 10 years of flight, the Rosetta spacecraft caught up with a comet and dropped a lander on its surface. The mother spacecraft has been orbiting the comet, and in September 2016 it will touch down onto the comet to end the mission. Join experts from the Rosetta team for a discussion about the upcoming landing and what we have learned from Rosetta about comets and the formation of the solar system.

Nonprofit museums, libraries and planetariums (sponsored through their respective State Agency Surplus Property, or SASP, organization) are also eligible to make requests. Visit the link below for special instructions to request items. To find the contact information for the SASP representative for your area, visit http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100851.

U.S. Department of Defense Seeks Applications for Acquisition of Equipment/Instrumentation

The U.S. Department of Defense is soliciting applications for the acquisition of equipment/instrumentation under the Fiscal Year 2017 Research and Education Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. The Research and Education Program is designed to enhance the research capabilities of HBCUs and MSIs and strengthen their STEM education programs.

The purpose of funding under this Broad Agency Announcement is to (1) support the acquisition of equipment/instrumentation to augment existing capabilities or to develop new capabilities in research areas of interest to the Department of Defense, and (2) attract students to pursue studies leading to STEM careers. Funding provided under this Broad Agency Announcement cannot be used for student support. But to further DoD’s objective of attracting students to pursue studies leading to STEM careers, applicants must address the impact of the requested equipment/instrumentation on student participation in research.

The National Science Foundation is seeking proposals for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities — Undergraduate Program. HBCU-UP is committed to enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education and research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as a means to broaden participation in the nation’s STEM workforce. HBCU-UP realizes this purpose by providing awards to develop, implement, and study innovative models and approaches for making dramatic improvements in the preparation and success of HBCU undergraduate students so that they may participate successfully in graduate programs and/or careers in STEM disciplines.

HBCU-UP provides support for a variety of opportunities. These include:

Targeted Infusion Projects, Broadening Participation Research Projects, Implementation Projects, and Achieving Competitive Excellence Implementation Projects: These projects aim to support efforts that increase STEM participation at HBCUs. See the website for individual project descriptions. The deadline to submit a required notice of intent for these projects is Sept. 6, 2016. Full proposals are due Nov. 22, 2016.

Broadening Participation Research Centers: These centers represent the collective intelligence of HBCU STEM higher education and serve as the national hubs for the rigorous study and broad dissemination of the critical pedagogies and culturally sensitive interventions that contribute to the success of HBCUs in educating African-American STEM undergraduates. Centers are expected to conduct research on STEM education and broadening participation in STEM; perform outreach to HBCUs to build capacity for conducting this type of research; and work to transfer and disseminate promising participation-broadening research to enhance STEM education and research outcomes for African-American undergraduates across the country. The preliminary proposal deadline for this opportunity is March 21, 2017. Full proposals are due Nov. 22, 2017.

The NASA Headquarters Office of Education, in cooperation with the agency’s four mission directorates, nine center education offices, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory education office, announces this competition to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Responses must be submitted electronically via the NASA data system NSPIRES (http://nspires.nasaprs.com).

NASA Education seeks to partner with eligible domestic or international organizations on a no-exchange-of-funds basis to reach wider and more diverse audiences and to achieve mutually beneficial objectives. The announcement places a priority on collaboration involving the following: digital learning; engaging underrepresented groups in STEM; NASA-themed STEM challenges; and youth-serving organizations. NASA also is receptive to other creative ideas including, for example, investigations or application of science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and design, or STEAMD; or activities culturally relevant to or focused on populations underrepresented in STEM careers, such as women, ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. The announcement explains the criteria used to review responses and NASA’s partnership mechanism known as a no-exchange-of-funds or nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please direct your questions to the Points of Contact listed within the NASA announcement.

NASA’s Centennial Challenges: Vascular Tissue Challenge

NASA, in partnership with the nonprofit Methuselah Foundation’s New Organ Alliance, is seeking ways to advance the field of bioengineering through a new prize competition. The Vascular Tissue Challenge offers a $500,000 prize to be divided among the first three teams that successfully create thick, metabolically functional, human vascularized organ tissue in a controlled laboratory environment.

Competitors must produce vascularized tissue that is more than .39 inches (1 centimeter) in thickness and maintains more than 85 percent survival of the required cells throughout a 30-day trial period. To win an award, teams must demonstrate three successful trials with at least a 75 percent success rate. In addition to the laboratory trials, teams must submit a proposal that details how they would further advance some aspect of their research through a microgravity experiment that could be conducted in the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station.

The first registered team(s) to meet the required guidelines and complete their trials by Sept. 30, 2019, will win the awards.

The Vascular Tissue Challenge prize purse is provided by NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. Centennial Challenges, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is NASA’s citizen-inventor prize program. It invites the nation to help advance the technologies that will enable us to go to Mars and beyond, as well as improve life on Earth. The New Organ Alliance is administering the competition on behalf of NASA. The alliance is a nonprofit organization focused on regenerative medicine research and development to benefit human disease research and tissue engineering.

For information about the Methuselah Foundation’s New Organ Alliance, official challenge documents, rules and schedule of events, visit https://neworgan.org/vtc-prize.php.

Help NASA study exotic landscape features near the south pole of Mars! In this citizen science project, you will view images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera. Your input will help scientists identify possible areas for even more detailed examination with the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera. HiRISE can reveal more detail than any other camera ever put into orbit around Mars.

Some of Mars resembles deserts on Earth, but seasonal freezing and thawing of carbon-dioxide ice (known on Earth as “dry ice”) at the Martian poles create some unusual landscape features. There’s a lot of territory to cover, so scientists need your help identifying what and where these features are.

Searchable Portals for Federally Sponsored Opportunities for STEM Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student seeking opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science — in collaboration with the participating agencies in the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) and the Science.gov Alliance — has launched a search portal for both students and universities to discover federally sponsored STEM education training and funding opportunities.

Student users can search the site for opportunities they can apply to directly, such as research internships and fellowships. Likewise, universities can search the site for federal funding opportunities to establish innovative training programs for undergraduates or graduate students.

Users can search the site through faceted searching capabilities for characteristics such as program type, STEM discipline, institution location, federal sponsor, and eligibility. Or they can search through the open text option.

Do you just want to receive weekly updates on NASA Education opportunities relating to science? Sign up for the NASA Education “Science WOW!” message for science opportunities delivered to your inbox “Weekly on Wednesdays!” https://www.nasa.gov/education/sciencewow/